For several years we have had an ongoing ministry with the Tree of Life (TOL) Relief Ministries of Mission, South Dakota, which has created a relationship of caring between many of us in this area to the Lakota people. Ilah Sisson Walser started the TOL as a personal mission and it has grown into a ministry that many from BSUMC have begun to take part in. In preparing for a holiday gift to our Bishop in 2004, Ilah looked for a mission which served the Native America people. She found the listing for the Tree of Life Ministry in Mission, South Dakota which serves the Rosebud Reservation and the surrounding area. After the gift was given, a newsletter was received, and the conversation began. Shipments of needed items started and have continued into the present time, which include cookbooks, children’s books, hats and mittens, baby blankets, and lots of love in the form of new or very gently used stuffed animals. Appropriate NEW items for Christmas gifts are sent in the late Fall. In 2010, Ilah and her sister Breta packed and shipped 183 cartons, an increase from the 165 cartons in 2009. The gifts we send to the TOL must be new or nearly new, clean items. In the late spring-early summer of 2011, the BSUMC Sunday School participated by collecting cookbooks and money for postage. Three cartons of over 90 cookbooks have been shipped.If you would like to participate in this program, please contact Ilah Sisson Walser thru our "Contact Us" link on the website to find out how you can participate in this worthy mission!